that he first understood that his promised posterity | passion and by remembrance of Lot, the patriarch were to grow up into a nation under foreign bond-ventured, reverently but perseveringly, to intercede age; and that, in 400 years after (or, strictly, 405 years, counting from the birth of Isaac to the Exode), they should come forth from that bondage as a nation, to take possession of the land in which he sojourned (Gen. xiv.).

After ten years' residence in Canaan (B.c. 1913), Sarai, being then 75 years old, and having long been accounted barren, chose to put her own interpretation upon the promised blessing of a progeny to Abraham, and persuaded him to take her woman-slave Hagar, an Egyptian, as a secondary or concubine-wife, with the view that whatever child might proceed from this union should be accounted her own [HAGAR]. The son who was born to Abraham by Hagar, and who received the name of Ishmael [ISHMAEL], was accordingly brought up as the heir of his father and of the promises (Gen. xvi.). Thirteen years after (B.c. 1900), when Abraham was 99 years old, he was favoured with still more explicit declarations of the Divine purposes. He was reminded that the promise to him was that he should be the father of many nations; and to indicate this intention his name was now changed (as before described) from Abram to Abraham. The Divine Being then solemnly renewed the covenant to be a God to him and to the race that should spring from him; and in token of that covenant directed that he and his should receive in their flesh the sign of circumcision [CIRCUMCISION]. Abundant blessings were promised to Ishmael; but it was then first announced, in distinct terms, that the heir of the special promises was not yet born, and that the barren Sarai, then 90 years old, should twelve months thence be his mother. Then also her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah (the princess); and to commemorate the laughter with which the prostrate patriarch received such strange tidings, it was directed that the name of Isaac (he laughed) should be given to the future child. The very same day, in obedience to the Divine ordinance, Abraham himself, his son Ishmael, and his houseborn and purchased slaves were all circumcised (Gen. xvii.).

for the doomed Sodom; and at length obtained a promise that, if but ten righteous men were found therein, the whole city should be saved for their sake. Early the next morning Abraham arose to ascertain the result of this concession: and when he looked towards Sodom, the smoke of its destruction, rising like the smoke of a furnace,' made known to him its terrible overthrow [SODOM]. He probably soon heard of Lot's escape: but the consternation which this event inspired in the neighbourhood induced him, almost immediately after, to remove farther off into the territories of Abimelech, king of Gerar. By a most extraordinary infatuation and lapse of faith, Abraham allowed himself to stoop to the same mean and foolish prevarication in denying his wife, which, twenty-three years before, had occasioned him so much trouble in Egypt. The result was also similar [ABIMILECH], except that Abraham answered to the rebuke of the Philistine by stating the fears by which he had been actuated-adding, And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.' This mends the matter very little, since in calling her his sister he designed to be understood as saying she was not his wife. As he elsewhere calls Lot his brother,' this statement that Sarah was his sister' does not interfere with the probability that she was his niece.

The same year* Sarah gave birth to the longpromised son, and, according to previous direction, the name of Isaac was given to him [ISAAC]. This greatly altered the position of Ishmael, who had hitherto appeared as the heir both of the temporal and the spiritual heritage; whereas he had now to share the former, and could not but know that the latter was limited to Isaac. This appears to have created much ill-feeling both on his part and that of his mother towards the child; which was in some way manifested so pointedly, on occasion of the festivities which attended the weaning, that the wrath of Sarah was awakened, and she insisted that both Hagar and her son should be sent away. This was a very hard matThree months after this, as Abraham sat in his ter to a loving father; and Abraham was so much tent door during the heat of the day, he saw three pained that he would probably have refused comtravellers approaching, and hastened to meet them, pliance with Sarah's wish, had he not been apand hospitably pressed upon them refreshment prised in a dream that it was in accordance with and rest. They assented, and under the shade of the Divine intentions respecting both Ishmael and a terebinth tree partook of the abundant fare Isaac. With his habitual uncompromising obewhich the patriarch and his wife provided, while dience, he then hastened them away early in the Abraham himself stood by in respectful attend-morning, with provision for the journey. Their ance. From the manner in which one of the adventures belong to the article HAGAR. strangers spoke, Abraham soon gathered that his visitants were no other than the Lord himself and two attendant angels in human form. The promise of a son by Sarah was renewed; and when Sarah herself, who overheard this within the tent, laughed inwardly at the tidings, which, on account of her great age, she at first disbelieved, she incurred the striking rebuke, 'Is any thing too hard for Jehovah?' The strangers then addressed themselves to their journey, and Abraham walked some way with them. The two angels went forward in the direction of Sodom, while the Lord made known to him that, for their enormous iniquities, Sodom and the other cities of the plain' were about to be made signal monuments of his wrath and of his moral government. Moved by com

When Isaac was about 20 years old (B.c. 1872) it pleased God to subject the faith of Abraham to a severer trial than it had yet sustained, or that has ever fallen to the lot of any other mortal man. He was commanded to go into the mountainous country of Moriah (probably where the temple afterwards stood), and there offer up in sacrifice the son of his affection, and the heir of so many hopes and

*It is, however, supposed by some biblical critics that the preceding adventure with Abimelech is related out of its order, and took place at an earlier date. Their chief reason is that Sarah was now 90 years of age. But the very few years by which such a supposition might reduce this age, seem scarcely worth the discussion [SARAH].

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opinion that Abrech means a native Egyptian;' | all events, David mourned every day after the and when we consider how important it was that banished fratricide, whom a regard for public Joseph should cease to be regarded as a foreigner opinion and a just horror of his crime forbade [ABOMINATION], it has in this sense an import- him to recall. His secret wishes to have home ance and significance which no other interpreta- his beloved though guilty son were however distion conveys. It amounts to a proclamation of cerned by Joab, who employed a clever woman of naturalization, which, among such a people as Tekoah to lay a supposed case before him for judg the Egyptians, was essential to enable Joseph ment; and she applied the anticipated decision to work out the great plan he had undertaken. so adroitly to the case of Absalom, that the king We believe however that it is not now possible discovered the object and detected the interposito determine the signification of the word with tion of Joab. Regarding this as in some degree certainty. expressing the sanction of public opinion, David

ABSALOM (Di, father of peace; Sept. 'Aßeroaλwu; Vulg. Absalon), the third son of David, and his only son by Maachah, daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur (2 Sam. iii. 3). He was deemed the handsomest man in the kingdom; and was particularly noted for the profusion of his beautiful hair, which appears to have been regarded with great admiration; but of which we can know nothing with certainty, except that it was very fine and very ample. We are told that when its inconvenient weight compelled him

does not necessarily מקץ ימים לימים) at times

gladly commissioned Joab to call home his banished.' Absalom returned; but David, still mindful of his duties as a king and father, controlled the impulse of his feelings, and declined to admit him to his presence. After two years, however, Absalom, impatient of his disgrace, found means to compel the attention of Joab to his case; and through his means a complete reconciliation was effected, and the father once more indulged himself with the presence of his son (2 Sam. xiii. xiv.).

The position at this time occupied by Absalom was very peculiar, and the view of it enables us mean every year,' as in the A.V.) to cut it off, to discover how far the general Oriental laws of it was found to weigh 200 shekels after the primogeniture were affected by the peculiar conking's weight; but as this has been interpreted ditions of the Hebrew constitution. At the outas high as 112 ounces (Geddes) and as low as 7 set he was the third son of David, Amnon and ounces (A. Clarke), we may be content to under- Chileab being his elder brothers. But it was posstand that it means a quantity unusually large. sible that he might even then, while they lived, David's other child by Maachah was a daughter consider himself entitled to the succession; and named Tamar, who was also very beautiful. She Oriental usage would not have discountenanced became the object of lustful regard to her half- the pretension. He alone was of royal debrother Amnon, David's eldest son; and was vio- scent by the side of his mother; and royal or lated by him. In all cases where polygamy is noble descent by the mother is even now (as we allowed, we find that the honour of a sister is in the see by the recent instance of Abbas Meerza in guardianship of her full brother, more even than in Persia) of itself a sufficient ground of preference that of her father, whose interest in her is consi- over an elder brother whose maternal descent is dered less peculiar and intimate. We trace this less distinguished. This circumstance, illusnotion even in the time of Jacob (Gen. xxxiv. 6, trated by Absalom's subsequent conduct, may 13, 25, sqq.). So in this case the wrong of Tamar suggest that he early entertained a design upon was taken up by Absalom, who kept her secluded the succession to the throne, and that the removal in his own house, and said nothing for the present, of Amnon was quite as much an act of policy as but brooded silently over the wrong he had sus- of revenge. The other elder brother, Chileab, aptained and the vengeance which devolved upon pears to have died: and if the claims of Absalom, him. It was not until two years had passed, and or rather his grounds of pretension, were so imwhen this wound seemed to have been healed, that portant while Amnon and Chileab lived, his Absalom found opportunity for the bloody revenge position must have been greatly strengthened when, he had meditated. He then held a great sheep-on his return from exile, he found himself the eldest shearing feast at Baal-hazor near Ephraim, to which he invited all the king's sons; and, to lull suspicion, he also solicited the presence of his father. As he expected, David declined for himself, but allowed Amnon and the other princes to attend. They feasted together; and, when they were warm with wine, Amnon was set upon and slain by the servants of Absalom, according to the previous directions of their master. Horrorstruck at the deed, and not knowing but that they were included in the doom, the other princes took to their mules and fled to Jerusalem, filling the king with grief and horror by the tidings which they brought. As for Absalom, he hastened to Geshur and remained there three years with his father-in-law, king Talmai.

Now it happened that Absalom, with all his faults, was eminently dear to the heart of his father. His beauty, his spirit, his royal birth, may be supposed to have drawn to him those fond paternal feelings which he knew not how to appreciate. At

surviving son, and, according to the ordinary laws of primogeniture, the heir apparent of the crown. Such being his position, and his father being old, it would seem difficult at the first view to assign a motive for the conspiracy against the crown and life of his indulgent father, in which we soon after find him engaged. It is then to be considered that the king had a dispensing power, and was at liberty, according to all Oriental usage, to pass by the eldest son and to nominate a younger to the succession. This could not have affected Absalom, as there is every reason to think that David, if left to himself, would have been glad to have seen the rule of succession take its ordinary course in favour of his best loved But then, again, under the peculiar theocratical institutions of the Hebrews, the Divine king reserved and exercised a power of dispensation, over which the human king, or viceroy, had no control. The house of David was established as a reigning dynasty; and although the law of

son.

primogeniture was allowed eventually to take in general its due course, the Divine king reserved the power of appointing any member of that house whom he might prefer. That power had been exercised in the family of David by the preference of Solomon, who was at this time a child, as the successor of his father. David had known many years before that his dynasty was to be established in a son not yet born (2 Sam. vii. 12); and when Solomon was born, he could not be ignorant, even if not specially instructed, that he was the destined heir. This fact must have been known to many others as the child grew up, and probably the mass of the nation was cognizant of it. In this we find a clear motive for the rebellion of Absalom-to secure the throne which he deemed to be his right by the laws of primogeniture, during the lifetime of his father; lest delay, while awaiting the natural term of his days, should so strengthen the cause of Solomon with his years, as to place his succession beyond all contest.

should be pursued that very night, and smitten, while he was weary and weak handed, and before he had time to recover strength.' Hushai, however, whose object was to gain time for David, speciously urged, from the known valour of the king, the possibility and fatal consequences of a defeat, and advised that all Israel should be assembled against him in such force as it would be impossible for him to withstand. Fatally for Absalom, the counsel of Hushai was preferred to that of Ahithophel; and time was thus given to enable the king, by the help of his influential followers, to collect his resources, as well as to give the people time to reflect upon the undertaking in which so many of them had embarked. The king soon raised a large force, which he properly organized and separated into three divisions, commanded severally by Joab, Abishai, and Ittai of Gath. The king himself intended to take the chief command; but the people refused to allow him to risk his valued life, and the command then devolved upon Joab. The battle took place in the borders of the forest of Ephraim; and the tactics of Joab, in drawing the enemy into the wood, and there hemming them in, so that they were destroyed with ease, eventually, under the providence of God, decided the action against Absalom. Twenty thousand of his troops were slain, and the rest fled to their homes. Absalom himself fled on a swift mule; but as he went, the boughs of a terebinth tree caught the long hair in which he gloried, and he was left suspended there. The charge which David had given to the troops to respect the life of Absalom prevented any one from slaying him: but when Joab heard of it, he hastened to the spot, and pierced him through with three darts. His body was then taken down and cast into a pit there in the forest, and a heap of stones was raised upon it.

The fine person of Absalom, his superior birth, and his natural claim, pre-disposed the people to regard his pretensions with favour: and this predisposition was strengthened by the measures which he took to win their regard. In the first place he insinuated that he was the heir apparent, by the state and attendance with which he appeared in public; while that very state the more enhanced the show of condescending sympathy with which he accosted the suitors who repaired for justice or favour to the royal audience, inquired into their various cases, and hinted at the fine things which might be expected if he were on the throne, and had the power of accomplishing his own large and generous purposes. By these influences 'he stole the hearts of the men of Israel;' and when at length, four years after his return from Geshur, he repaired to Hebron and there proclaimed himself king, the great body of the people declared for him. So strong ran the tide of opinion in his favour, that David found it ex-guished by all that had passed; and as he sat, pedient to quit Jerusalem and retire to Mahanaim, beyond the Jordan.

When Absalom heard of this, he proceeded to Jerusalem and took possession of the throne without opposition. Among those who had joined him was Ahithophel, who had been David's counsellor, and whose profound sagacity caused his counsels to be regarded like oracles in Israel. This defection alarmed David more than any other single circumstance in the affair, and he persuaded his friend Hushai to go and join Absalom, in the hope that he might be made instrumental in turning the sagacious counsels of Abithophel to foolishness. The first piece of advice which Ahithophel gave Absalom was that he should publicly take possession of that portion of his father's harem which had been left behind in Jerusalem. This was not only a mode by which the succession to the throne might be confirmed [ABISHAG: Comp. Herodotus, iii. 68], but in the present case, as suggested by the wily counsellor, this villanous measure would dispose the people to throw themselves the more unreservedly into his cause, from the assurance that no possibility of reconcilement between him and his father remained. Hushai had not then arrived. Soon after he came, when a council of war was held, to consider the course of operations to be taken against David. Abithophel counselled that the king

David's fondness for Absalom was unextin

awaiting tidings of the battle, at the gate of Mahanaim, he was probably more anxious to learn that Absalom lived, than that the battle was gained; and no sooner did he hear that Absalom was dead, than he retired to the chamber above the gate, to give vent to his paternal anguish. The victors, as they returned, slunk into the town like criminals, when they heard the bitter wailings of the king:-O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son! The consequences of this weaknessnot in his feeling, but in the inability to control it-might have been most dangerous, had not Joab gone up to him, and, after sharply rebuking him for thus discouraging those who had risked their lives in his cause, induced him to go down and cheer the returning warriors by his presence (2 Sam. xiii.-xix. 8).

ABSALOM'S TOMB. A remarkable monument bearing this name makes a conspicuous figure in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, outside Jerusalem; and it has been noticed and described by almost all travellers. It is close by the lower bridge over the Kedron, and is a square isolated block hewn out from the rocky ledge so as to leave an area or niche around it. The body of this monument is about 21 feet square, and is ornamented on each side with two columns and two half co